I must admit, when I lived in England I always headed south for holidays. Anywhere palm trees were abundant. Spain, Italy or the South of France - you get the picture. But when a friend, whom I was visiting in Italy, suggested a shopping trip to Poland I thought it was a great idea. "You leave Fort Worth on Friday right?" she asked. "So, I've booked us on a bus and we leave Aviano at 7:00 p.m. on Saturday. That will give you a day to rest. We'll travel through the night, sleep on the bus and have all day shopping at the potteries in Poland and come back Sunday night."
It sounded like fun until I checked the weather forecast and looked at the map. Aviano is near the Italian Alps and it was snowing. Poland is not next to Italy. In fact it's several countries away. Adding to the doubts flooding my mind like the Venetian Acqua Alta, was the arrival time on my ticket. The flight was leaving Fort Worth on Friday, but with a five hour layover at JFK in New York and a six hour time difference, I wouldn't arrive until Saturday afternoon. After only a few hours to shower and eat, we'd be leaving from the U.S. Air Force Base in Aviano (picture above) for a 24 hour bus trip through Austria,and Germany and fringing on the Czech Republic (almost at the same latitude as southern England) and I was betting there wouldn't be a palm t
ree in sight.
It sounded like fun until I checked the weather forecast and looked at the map. Aviano is near the Italian Alps and it was snowing. Poland is not next to Italy. In fact it's several countries away. Adding to the doubts flooding my mind like the Venetian Acqua Alta, was the arrival time on my ticket. The flight was leaving Fort Worth on Friday, but with a five hour layover at JFK in New York and a six hour time difference, I wouldn't arrive until Saturday afternoon. After only a few hours to shower and eat, we'd be leaving from the U.S. Air Force Base in Aviano (picture above) for a 24 hour bus trip through Austria,and Germany and fringing on the Czech Republic (almost at the same latitude as southern England) and I was betting there wouldn't be a palm t
ree in sight. 
